Michigan's Beilein 'born' to be head coach, never an assistant

Apr. 6, 2013
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No. 18 Michigan's John Beilein. $1,865,975.
Beilein's contract calls for his pay from the school to increase from $1.8 million to $1.9 million for the 2013-14 season. The agreement includes only two bonus provisions â?? he can get $25,000 each season the team plays in the NCAA tournament and an additional $25,000 for each tournament win. / Kevin Jairaj, USA TODAY Sports

by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

ATLANTA - John Beilein's path to his first Final Four has been long, winding and rather unexpected. He is a rare coach who's never been an assistant and didn't get his first Division I job until 17 years into the business. He's had pit stops at the high school, community college, Division II and Division I levels.

Two months ago, he turned 60 years old. He's a grandfather who grew up one of nine siblings in their slice of basketball-crazed Western New York.

He's seen a lot and done a lot, but never this. Saturday, he'll lead a team onto the court against Syracuse for a chance to play for a national championship.

"When he says he wouldn't recommend anybody doing it the way he did it, I totally believe him," says Patrick Beilein, his son and first-year coach at Division II West Virginia Wesleyan. "It's a challenge."

But the fact it was tough was never going to stop Beilein. This was all he'd wanted to do. Mike Ennis, a childhood friend from Lockport, N.Y., says Beilein was "born to coach."

Another childhood friend who now does radio for the Buffalo Bills, John Murphy, recalls a car ride with his older brother and some of Murphy's brother's friends, including Beilein, back when they were teenagers at DeSales High School.

"He said, 'All I want to do when I grow up is coach basketball and marry a really beautiful girl, like a flight attendant,' " Murphy says, laughing.

He laughs because Beilein became a successful college basketball coach. And he laughs because Beilein's wife of 33 years, Kathleen, was indeed a flight attendant. (She worked for United Airlines, Patrick says.)

Basketball has always been in Beilein's blood, flowing from uncles and cousins and generations of Nilands. The name â?? his mother's maiden name â?? carries quite a bit of weight in Western New York. His uncles, Tommy and Joe, were stars at Canisius before enlisting to fight in World War II. Other relatives played and coached all over the area, too. A coach and longtime athletics director at LeMoyne, Tommy Niland Jr. hired his nephew as his head basketball coach in 1983.

In 1987, Beilein applied for a job at the place that had made the Nilands famous: Canisius.

The night before his interview, he stayed with Murphy, who lived in Buffalo. Murphy tried to keep his friend calm, downplaying the job and trying to remain relaxed. It didn't work; Beilein didn't get the job.

"I felt guilty because I thought I did something wrong," Murphy says. "I thought maybe I gave him the wrong cereal."

Canisius hired Marty Marbach, one of Rollie Massimino's assistants at Villanova two years removed from the Wildcats' national title.

"The mantra at the time was, our Division I type of schools should hire a first-rate assistant coach from Division I," then-Canisius athletics director Dr. Daniel Starr says. So he did.

But after five seasons in which Marbach's teams went 49-94, Canisius needed a new coach. Again, Starr met with Beilein, and this time, he wanted someone with head coaching experience. Beilein had nine years at LeMoyne, one at Nazareth, four at Erie Community College and three at Newfane High School, where he also taught history.

This time, there was no bad-luck cereal. Beilein got his first Division I job, and Starr got a letter in the mail from Beilein's aunt, Frances Niland, a nun who went by Sister Marie Thomas. She'd also happened to be Starr's sixth grade teacher and was "a character," by his estimation.

"It came in the mail, this note that said, 'Danny, you finally did something right in hiring my nephew.' I hope it was a little bit tongue and cheek," Starr said, laughing.

Next came five years at Canisius, including an NCAA tournament appearance for the first time in 39 years. Five years at Richmond, where his Spiders pulled off a No. 14-3 seed upset in the NCAA tournament. Five years at West Virginia, where he reached the Elite Eight. Now, Michigan and the Final Four.

All along the way, a group of childhood friends has made trips to see Beilein's games. It was easier, certainly, when he coached in the Buffalo area. The bus trips â?? filled with friends, wives and sons, sometimes as many as 42 â?? were longer to Richmond, West Virginia and Michigan, but his friends made them. Ennis insists Beilein's teams are 13-1 when his buddies are there (with the only loss coming to Syracuse in Feb. 2003). They've been along for the ride the whole time.

"We knew, the small group of us that still stays in touch, we knew the direction he was going in," Ennis says. "We always hoped he'd reach this point."

Everywhere he's been, Beilein has had success. And at every single stop, he's been the guy calling the shots. A coach who's only ever been a head coach is a rarity in college basketball these days.

"In many ways, it made it more difficult to become a better coach sometimes because I couldn't shortcut," Beilein says. "I couldn't sit next to a great coach and (he'd) say, 'You should never try that in a game.' I would try it in a game. We would get our butts kicked. I would learn by sleeping on the couch that night because I didn't sleep all night that night.

"You learn that it takes a step back, but it takes a step forward because the next time you get that opportunity, you're not going to make that same mistake again. It goes up and down, up and down."

His son Patrick can't even fathom what it would be like to be on his own at this stage in his career. He says he talked to his father at least three times a week during his first season as a head coach, and that all comes after spending two seasons as a graduate assistant to his father at Michigan.

"I'm lucky. He had nobody, and I have him," Patrick says. "(And) for me as a head coaching looking at it â?? not his son â?? you see a coach like him start from that and get to where he is now, and the way he can be so successful with his style of play. I really get excited that I can do this. I can win. I can get to where he is."